Past Events

Future First and its fiscal sponsor the Science and Environmental Health Network have an ongoing engagement with the Minnesota community. Since the 2014 Women's Congress for Future Generations, we continue to organize and co-sponsor events with movement partners in the area.

Note: Events held between November 2014 - August 2015 have been archived. For more information about a particular past event, please contact moreinfo@futurefirst.us

In the months ahead, our state is poised to make major decisions that will shape our future. But with anti-environment leaders fighting to roll back protections, efforts to safeguard Minnesota’s air, water, lands and climate face enormous challenges:

The Public Utilities Commission and Xcel Energy will decide the future of Sherco, the state’s largest polluter.
The final environmental study for the PolyMet sulfide mine will be released for public response.

Minnesota will finalize its Clean Power Plan to reduce carbon emissions.

Join the Sierra Club and Future First to learn about the urgent threats we face, and what you can do to make your voice heard.
Don’t get discouraged, get involved and help us stand up for Minnesota’s clean air, water and future!

Breast cancer, scientific uncertainty, and the rise of women’s activism

Up until the late 1990’s, health decisions were made like most other science-based decisions: you waited for scientific certainty, then you acted. This approach seemed to work for problems considered to have a single “cause” and a single effect (for example, vitamin C deficiency causing scurvy or a virus causing polio).

By the 1980s, it was obvious that waiting for scientific certainty wasn’t working for the emerging problems of the 21st century. These problems were characterized by long delays between cause and effect, many “insignificant” causes adding up to a big effect, and the ominous rise of chronic diseases like diabetes, asthma, and cancer.

Breast cancer is a case in point. Over the course of one generation the prevalence of breast cancer rose from one-in-25 women to one-in-8.

Join a conversation about the next chapter in this story of science, women’s leadership and new, practical rules for changing the game. How to protect future generations is a detective story, but it’s no mystery.

Women’s Companion for Political Change

Rethinking the Role of Government to Align the Law with Justice

An all-day training to use a common legal framework in grassroots organizing to protect the waters of the Upper Midwest. The Workshop will explore:

– The importance of the Commons
– Public Trust Theory of Government
– Free Prior and Informed Consent, and how to withdraw consent!
– Precautionary Principle
– Guardianship for Future Generations

We will take a deep dive into the ‘how to’s’ of applying these ideas. We will engage a set of Legal Principles for Mining, Fracking, Pipelines, and More. We will learn how the legal principles developed around the Women’s Congress apply to grassroots problems in your local communities and the region. You will leave knowing how to take the Companion and Legal Principles home and how to organize around them.

Monthly Briefing Series

We organized potlucks, talks and monthly briefings leading up to the 2014 Women’s Congress for Future Generations. These events provided an opportunity to delve deeper, gain insight and learn how to turn ideas into action.

Declaration of the Rights Held and Bill of Responsibilities, November 2012

July 2012, Women’s Congress for Future Generations Founder Carolyn Raffensperger spoke about the power of withdrawing our consent to the things that don’t support life on this planet. Women have the unique skills, vision and responsibility to create a new way forward. Watch a clip from this event on why women have a unique responsibility to caring for our earth and for the lives of future generations.